Part of the success of mobile broadband services is based on the usage of higher order modulation schemes (16 QAM, 32 QAM and 64 QAM in the future). The utilization of higher order modulation is so far restricted to HSPA, but can be easily extrapolated in the future to EDGE evolution and definitely to 4G. This higher order modulation schemes are different from conventional QPSK mechanism as not all symbols have the same amplitude, hence not all symbols consume same energy. This can be seen as the price to pay for increasing the amount of bits per symbol (e.g. in 8 PSK each symbol carries 3 bits, with 16 QAM number is 4 bits, 32 QAM goes up to 5 and finally with 64 QAM the amount of bits per symbol is 6).
Current mechanisms to reduce power consumption in mobile telecommunications are mainly based on reducing the amount of energy required by the hardware mechanisms (increased PA (Power Amplifier) efficiency, switch off of unused elements during idle times), but radio protocols are not considered as a mechanism to improve energy efficiency of mobile networks.
It is well-known that abbreviations and acronyms are frequently used in the mobile telephony field. Below is a glossary of acronyms/terms used throughout the present specification:
3GPPThe 3rd Generation Partnership ProjectETSIEuropean Telecommunications Standards InstituteGPRSGeneral Packet Radio ServiceGSMGlobal System for Mobile CommunicationsEDGEEnhanced Data GSM EnvironmentMACMedium Access ControlPAPower AmplifierPSKPhase Shift KeyingQAMQuadrature Amplitude ModulationQPSKQuadrature Phase-Shift KeyingRLCRadio Link ControlUEUser EquipmentUMTSUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System